Field Guide of tsunami damage and reconstruction site visit in
Miyagi prefecture
Onagawa – Ishinomaki – Sendai – Natori – Iwanuma

11 May 2013

Tsunami struck Sendai Plain after one hour

Tsunami inundation in Natori city

Recovery of Sendai Airport and tsunami markNew tsunami evacuation map in Sendai

Prepared byAnawat Suppasri and Erick Mas
suppasri@irides.tohoku.ac.jp , mas@irides.tohoku.ac.jp
Supervised by

Fumihiko Imamura
imamura@irides.tohoku.ac.jp
International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University

1

Contents

1.

Itinerary3

2.

Route Map

3

3.

Background of tsunamis in the Sanriku area

4

4.

The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami

45.

Onagawa hospital, Onagawa town

6

6.

Kadonowaki elementary school, Ishinomaki city

7

7.

Namiwake Shrine, Sendai city

98.

Arahama village, Sendai city

10

9.

Yuriage town, Natori city

14

10. Sendai Airport, Natori city

16

11. Thousand years hope hill, Iwanuma city

17

12. Sengan shrine, Iwanuma city

18

References202

1. Iternary
Time
0745
0800 -1000
1000 - 1100
1100 - 1200
1200 - 1230
1230 - 1400
1400 - 1415
1415 - 1430
1430 - 1445
1445 - 1500
1500 - 1515
1515 - 1530
1530 - 1600

Activity
Meet participants at the hotel lobby
Depart for Onagawa town. Short break at service area.
Visit Onagawa town (Overturned buildings, Onagawa hospital)
Move to Ishinomaki city and have lunch
Visit Ishinomaki city (Damaged school, factory area)
Move to Sendai City. Short break at service area.
Visit Arahama town (Damaged school, seawall, tsunami memorial)
Move to Natori City
Visit Yuriage town (Past tsunami memorial, reconstruction model)
Move to Sendai Airport
Visit Sendai Airport (Short break, tsunami inundation mark, Sendai
access line)
Visit Thousand years hope hill (10-15 m hill made of tsunami debris)
Back to Sendai JR Station (Optional: Namiwake shrine on the way back)

2. Route Map1.

2.

and 7. thousand years hope hill

Figure 1: Onagawa – Ishinomaki – Sendai – Natori – Iwanuma

33. Background of tsunamis in the Sanriku coast and Sendai plain
Japan is well known for having the world’s best tsunami countermeasures and evacuation
mechanism because of its long history of tsunamis, especially along the Sanriku coast. The
Sanriku area extends northward from Sendai, passing through Iwate to Aomori as a sawtoothed coastline more than 600 km in length. Because of its ria coast, the tsunami height caneasily reach 20 m. Therefore, a number of large-scale structural and non-structural mitigation
facilities were constructed in the past, especially after the 1960 Chile tsunami (Abe and
Imamura, 2010). The Sanriku coast was often hit by giant tsunamis. Considering only
tsunamis that were generated by earthquakes over M8.0, the first historical tsunami aroundthis area is the Jogan tsunami. It was generated by the M8.3 EQ in 869, followed by M8.1 EQ
in 1611, M8.5 EQ in 1896, M8.1 EQ in 1933 and finally the M9.0 EQ in 2011. In 1896 thetsunami caused nearly 22,000 deaths, which is the highest number of deaths that have beencaused by a tsunami in Japanese history. The three events in 869, 1611 and 2011 caused large
tsunami inundation in the Sendai plain area of the Miyagi prefecture. In summary, greattsunamis have stricken the Sanriku area every 600 years on average (two events in 1,100
years). However, before the 2011 event, there was a 99% probability of a magnitude M7.58.0 earthquake to strike off the Miyagi Prefecture within 30 years (Sendai city, 2011). A
series of M7.4-M8.0 earthquakes have occurred in the Miyagi Sea since 1793, and theaverage time between them is 37 years. Many countermeasures have been constructed in
preparation for this tsunami. Based on previous events, the Sendai plain area was considered
as a low risk area and the primary concern was for the ria coast, with its remarkable tsunami
amplification. For instance, in Ofunato, maximum runup heights of 38.2 m and 28.7 m wererecorded from the 1896 Meiji and 1933 Showa tsunamis, respectively. However, for thesesame two tsunamis, maximum runup heights of less than 5 m and 3.9 m, respectively, wererecorded in the Sendai plain (Sawai et al., 2008 and Yamashita, F., 2008).
4. The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami
At 14:46 on March 11th, 2011, a massive earthquake was recorded in Japan, occurring at
N38.1, E142.9 with a magnitude of 9.0 and a depth of 24 km (JMA, 2011). It was followed
by aftershocks and a devastating tsunami with a maximum height of 40 m (The 2011 Tohoku
Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group, 2011). The earthquake was ranked as the fourthlargest in the world following the 1960 Chile (M9.5), 2004 Sumatra (M9.3) and 1964 Alaska(M9.2) earthquakes. The earthquake had a long period (about three minutes with the largest
slip found to be approximately 30 m) (USGS, 2011). The maximum recorded earthquake
intensity was 7, the maximum level on the Japanese scale (JMA, 2011). The earthquake early
warning system was issued 8 seconds after the detection of a first P-wave (JMA, 2011). A
tsunami warning was issued 3 minutes after the earthquake.
Table No. 1. Historical tsunamis in the Sanriku area and their resulting damage
Date

Name

Magnitude

Damage9 Jul 869

Jogan tsunami

8.3-8.6

More than 1,000 deaths

2 Dec 1611

Keicho Sanriku

8.1

More than 5,000 deaths

15 Jun 1896

Meiji Sanriku

8.5

21,959 deaths and > 10,000 houses destroyed

3 Mar 1933

Showa Sanriku

8.1

3,064 deaths and 1,810 houses destroyed

11 Mar 2011

Great East Japan

9.0

19,295 deaths and 359,073 houses destroyed4

Table No. 2. Records of earthquakes in the Miyagi Sea
Date

Lag time

Magnitude

17 Feb 1793

8.2

20 Jul 1835

42.4 years

21 Oct 1861

26.3 years

7.3
7.4
37.1 years
in average

20 Feb 1897

35.3 years

3 Nov 1936

39.7 years

7.4

12 Jun 1978

41.6 years

7.4

Before 11 Mar 2011

33 years passed with 99% possibility of occurrence

46

7.4

7.5 - 8.0

2011 Heisei

45

1896 Meiji
1933 Showa

441611 Keicho
43
42

1896
M8.5

1933
M8.1

Latitude

41
40
39
38
Miyagi Oki
M7.5-8.0

1611
M8.3

37
36

869
M8.3

2011
M9.0
(a)

35
(b)

34
0

10
20
30
Maximum tsunami hegiht (m)40Figure 2 Left: Major historical tsunamis and the expected Miyagi-Oki earthquake andlocation of the main shock; Right: tsunami height distribution of the 2011 Great East Japantsunami (Coastal Engineering Committee, 2011 and The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami
Joint Survey Group, 2011) and of the historical 1611 Keicho-Sanriku, 1933 Showa-Sanriku
and 1896 Meiji-Sanriku tsunamis (Tsunami Engineering Laboratory, 2011b)

5

5. Onagawa hospital, Onagawa town
Category
Outline of Damage
Casualties & Missing 941 (Dead: 816)
Damaged houses
3,888 (85% of
housing)Onagawa town is approximately 50 km northeast of Sendai city and is part of the Oshika
Peninsula. Although the town is located along the ria coast, it had comparatively less tsunami
impact from the 1896 and 1933 Sanriku tsunamis. On March, 11, according to survivors, thetsunami warning sounded just after the earthquake, but the system stopped a few minutes
later. Like other locations along the Sanriku coast, i.e., Kesennuma, many residences had
experienced the 1960 tsunami and tsunami awareness campaign. However, the inundation
area of the 2011 tsunami was wider than that of the 1960 Chile tsunami. The town hospital(Fig. 3(a)), which is located on a hill, was inundated on the first floor with a maximum
observed tsunami height larger than 18 m. A clock stopped at 15:36 was found in the hospital,
which is in agreement with the last record from the tide gauge station at Ayukawa,
Ishinomaki city where the observed tsunami was 7.6 m high at 15:25 before the station wasdestroyed. Most of the damage was to houses, cars, trains, boats and fishing tools. Fig. 3Right shows the result of land subsidence, where some parts of the land were submerged
under sea water during the high tide period of the day. The most remarkable feature in thisarea is that six reinforced concrete (RC) buildings were overturned by the tsunami, as shownin Figs. 3(a) and 4. All of them were 2-4 stories high and possessed shallow or pilefoundations. Before this event, no reports of overturned RC buildings had been made for any
recent tsunami events. In the final reconstruction plan only three buildings will be kept as thememorials namely building #C, #D and #F. Present condition of Onagawa town after two
years is shown in Fig. 5(a) and 5(b). Tsunami inundation mark (Fig. 5(a)) is put in thehospital entrance showing the tsunami depth of 1.95 m from the first floor of the hospital. Fig.
5(b) shows an example of the reconstruction plan in increasing road elevation to +5.4 m
above mean sea level which to be used as another belt to reduce tsunami impact.

F

E

Found
clock

D
Hospital

C
B

A

(a)

(b)

Figure 3 (a) Area map of Onagawa town and location of six overturned buildings A to F (6/4/2011)
and (b) Land subsidence causing submerged land by sea water (29/3/2011)
6

(a)

(b)

E

(c)

F

(d)

(e)

Figure 4 Overturned buildings in Onagawa namely A, B, C, D, E and F which some were moved up to
70 m (29/3/2011)

(a)

(b)

Figure 5 (a) Tsunami inundation mark (16/3/2012) and (b) Increase of road elevation (3/10/2012)

6. Kadonowaki elementary school, Ishinomaki city
Category
Casualties & Missing
Tsunami inundated area
Damaged houses
Damaged Agricultural field
DebrisOutline of Damage
3,647 (Dead: 2,978)73km2 (13% of the city)
53,742 (70% of housing)
1,800 ha6,163,000 t (100 yr.eq)

7Ishinomaki city was protected by breakwaters, seawalls and control forests. Based on a visualinspection from satellite images, washed-away building probability in the zone outside
breakwaters was as high as 88.4% whereas it was of only 42.8% inside breakwaters zone.
Although the damage to breakwaters was not large, the seawalls were seriously damaged byerosion on their back side. However, these structures were able to protect the control forests
behind them (Fig. 6). The tsunami height measured around the control forests was 7-8 m. The
populated residential area behind the control forest was generally less damaged on the outside.
This shows a reduction effect of the control forest. Figure 7(a)-(d) presents a very good
example during the survey of the fragility of each structural type under the same tsunami
inundation depth of 4 m. Only broken windows were found for the RC building in Fig. 7(b)and some walls and columns were destroyed in the 2-story wooden house in Fig. 7(c);however, the 1-story wooden house was completely collapsed in Fig. 7(d). Tsunami also
caused fire in wide areas on Ishinomaki. One of them is the fire at Kadonowaki elementary
school (Fig.(8(a)). The fire was first occurred by electrical short in a car battery. Then the car
was flown as debris to the school enlarging the fire area. However, all teachers and children
had already evacuated to the hill behind the school via their evacuation route before thetsunami arrived. Fig. 8(b) shows example of tsunami inundation mark in Ishinomaki city.

(b)

(a)

Figure 6 (a) Damaged seawall foundation (26/4/2011) and (b) Survival of most pine trees
after the tsunami in Ishinomaki city (26/4/2011)(b)(a)
Fig. 4 (c):Wood 2-story

Fig. 4 (b):RC 2-story

Fig. 4 (d):Wood 1-story

Figure 7 (a) Damage condition of a RC building, 2-story wooden house and 1-story wooden
house under the same inundation depth of 4 m in Ishinomaki city and (b) RC building

8

(c)

(d)

Figure 7 (c) Damage conditions of a 2-story wooden house and (d) 1-story wooden house

(b)

(a)

Figure 8 (a) Kadonowaki elementary school (16/3/2012) and (b) Tsunami inundation mark(26/3/2012)
7. Namiwake shrine, Sendai city
The Namiwake shrine is a monument in the Sendai area. It is located approximately 5.5 km
from the sea in a low-lying area in the Wakabayashi ward of Sendai city. Namiwake wasoriginally built in 1703 (Fig. 9).

Figure 9 (a) Namiwake shrine and (b) Topographic profile of the Sendai plain and inundationby the Jogan tsunami (Sugawara et al., 2010)9

Many flood and tsunami disasters have occurred in this area in the past. In the 1611 Keicho
event, the tsunami inundated the shrine’s original site, and approximately 1,700 people were
killed. At one site, the tsunami wave, which approached from the East, was split in the NorthSouth direction; at that time, people believed that the tsunami was created by the God of thesea. In 1835, the shrine was moved to the actual site to protect it from the next tsunami; it
was given the name “Namiwake” (“Nami” means wave and “Wake” means separate) and isviewed as a symbol of tsunami prevention. In fact, also deposits from the 869 Jogan tsunami
were found 200-300 m from the front of the shrine (Fig. 10).

Figure 10 Locations of excavation sites and distribution of the Jogan tsunami deposit
8. Arahama village, Wakabayashi ward, Sendai city
Arahama is a populated village of the Wakabayashi area of Sendai city in the Miyagi
Prefecture. It is located between the Natori and the Nanakita rivers, six kilometers south of
Sendai Port. A total of 2,704 residents (Census, 2010) lived in this area; after the 2011
tsunami, Sendai city bureau reported a total of 2,421 residents (Census, 2011). The
discounted 283 might be casualties. After the earthquake local media reported between 200 to
300 victims found in the area. Tsunami arrived around one hour after the earthquake withmaximum wave height of 10 m and inundated 5 km inland, around ten times of the expected
Miyagi-oki tsunami. Arahama is provided with not so many high reinforced concretebuildings; however the only official tsunami evacuation building in the area is the Arahama
Elementary School of four stories and accessible roof. It remained after the earthquake andtsunami sheltering around 520 evacuees.

Figure 11 Left: Arahama before (Google Earth); Right: Arahama after (Google Earth)10

Figure 12 Videos show inundation heights and RC buildings standing tsunami force

2
1
3
4

Figure 13 Adventure Park in Arahama. 400m from shoreline. Tsunami did not overtop thisarea and continue until 4km inland. 5 persons evacuated here (2 staff members and 3 locals).
Tsunami height was around 10m.

11

1

2

3

4

Figure 13 (Continued)

Figure 14 Arahama Elementary School.

12Figure 15 Interview to Chief of Nursing Home in Arahama

Figure 16 Left: Hazard Map; Right: Seawall

(b)

(a)

Figure 17 (a) Staircase built for access to the surface of the Sendai-East expressway and (b)New tsunami memorial (13/3/2013)13

9. Yuriage town, Natori city
Yuriage area is located in Natori city, Miyagi. It is a former high-activity fishery port with
only 7,000 residents. Yuriage is near the Natori River; therefore tsunami inundation ran up
faster. There were many deaths reported here including firefighters on duty. 890 dead, 231
missing and 310 damaged roads were reported. Around 1,588 ha of agricultural area weredamaged. Tsunami height was of 8 meters and 45min arrival.

Figure 18 Left: Yuriage 2008; Right: Yuriage 2011

Figure 19 Left: Hiyoriyama; Right: Yuriage town view

Figure 20 Left: Fish market; Right: Fishery port

14

Figure 21 Left: Hiyoriyama before (Google street view); Right: Hiyoriyama after(Panoramio)

Figure 22 Left: An aerial view of Yuriage, the most devastated area in Natori city, in the
direction from south to north. The Teizan Canal, cut over 400 years ago, is seen in the middle.
The right side of the canal is Yuriage 6-chome, and the left side is Yuriage 7-chome; Right:
Yuriage is a densely populated area. The nursing home Urayasu is seen in the front. After thetsunami attack, the area was flooded and the nursing home was isolated for 4 days. Most of
the houses in the area in this photo were washed away. (Self Defense Force)

Figure 23 Left: An aerial view of Yuriage in the direction from north to south. The floodgate
at the bottom in the photo is the entry point from Natori river to the Teizan Canal. Many
bodies and vehicles lie at the bottom of water in this area. Rescue divers have been in searchand rescue work since March 19. Right: Yuriage Junior High School served as a temporary
evacuation center. Many cars and fishing boats were swept into the school yard. (Self Defense
Force)

15

Figure 24 Left: Tsunami inundation mark on the pedestrian bridge that saved many lives in
Yuriage (30/5/2012); Right: About 3 m land elevation in Yuriage will be increased as shownin the model
10. Sendai Airport, Natori city
Sendai Airport is located 13.6 km southeast of Sendai city in Natori, Miyagi. It was built in1940 by the Imperial Japanese Army, turned into national airport in 1957 and then upgradedto international airport in 1990. In 2011, the airport was first damaged by the earthquake andtsunami. Inundation reached up to some areas of the 2nd level of passenger terminal (3.5m).
All services were stopped at the moment and 1,300 people stranded in the terminal until
March 13th. It was reopened only for tsunami response flights on March 17th. The US Air
Force and Japan Self-Defense forces removed debris until the airport reopened to limited
commercial traffic on April 13th. Regular domestic flights resumed on July 25th and mostinternational flights on October 2011.

Figure 25 Damages to Sendai Airport (Left: before [www.japan-i.jp]; Right: after)

16

Figure 26 Left: South to North; Right: North to South [www.photos.oregonlive.com])

Figure 27 Left: Us Army; Right: Airport June, 2011 [AP/Kyodo News])

Figure 28 Left: Tsunami inundation mark in the Sendai airport (25/1/2012); Right: display oftsunami damage in the Sendai airport train station (25/1/2012)
11. Thousand years hope hill, Iwanuma city
Iwanuma city was one of the cities that had a coastal pine tree forest along their coast linked
from the northern part of Miyagi prefecture. However, the greenbelt was heavily damaged
and the city has a plan to replant it again. Besides, they have an idea to construct an artificial
hill which height varies from 10-15 m using tsunami debris. The purpose of the hill is to use
as a memorial park and evacuation place as an escape hill for a future tsunami called “Hill of
thousand years hope” (Iwanuma city, 2011). This hill will also help with new seawall to
reduce tsunami energy for the new populated area behind it. The town has a plan to use solar
energy in a large scale to build an eco-compact city project.

17

Iwanuma city

Tsunami inundation limit
Tsunami escape hill1
Tsunami escape hill2
Tsunami prevention road
Tsunami evacuation route
Tsunami prevention dike
Figure 29 Reconstruction plan of Iwanuma city

Figure 30 Cross section of the hill of thousand years hope

Figure 31 Left: Experiment model of the thousand years hope hill (3/8/2012); Right:
Tsunami inundation mark in Iwanuma city area (3/8/2012)
12. Sengan shrine, Iwanuma city
There is a historical record showing that the word “tsunami” was first used after the 1611
Keicho Sanriku tsunami that caused a wide range of damage in Sendai plain areas. The area
was controlled by the great lord “Date Masamune”. At that time, Masamune asked hissamurais for fish who were then swept by the tsunami and could survived by getting struck
on a pine tree under the Sengan mountain. Old Abukuma River was overflowed anddisappeared after the town reconstruction.

18

Sendai Castle

Iwanuma
Sengan Mt.

Figure 32 Left: Samurais left Sendai castle to catch fish for Masamune. They were swept by
the tsunami which dragged them to Sengan Mountain; Right: Story at that time (Tsuji, 2011)
Sengan Mt.
Iwanuma
Old Abukuma Riv.

Figure 33: Historical map in
Sengan Mountain area
showing location of the old
AbukumaRiver
andestimated inundation areaby the 1611 tsunami isshown in blue (Ebina, 2011)

Present Abukuma Riv.

Sengan Mt.

IwanumaPresent Abukuma Riv.

Figure 34: Present map in
Sengan Mountain area where
the old Abukuma River wasdisappeared (Red line shows
tsunami inundation limit of
the 2011 tsunami). It can benoted that coast line at thetime of 1611 tsunami wasabout 400 m more inlandMore information on our publications
Suppasri, A., Shuto, N., Imamura, F., Koshimura, S., Mas, E. and Yalciner, A.C., Lessons
learned from the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami: Performance of tsunami countermeasures,
coastal buildings and tsunami evacuation in Japan, Pure and Applied Geophysics(published online)

19Suppasri, A., Muhari, A., Ranasinghe, P., Mas, E., Shuto, N., Imamura, F. and Koshimura, S.
(2012) Damage and reconstruction after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011
Great East Japan tsunami, Journal of Natural Disaster Science, 34 (1), 19-39.
Suppasri, A., Koshimura, S., Imai, K., Mas, E., Gokon, H., Muhari, A. and Imamura, F.
(2012) Damage characteristic and field survey of the 2011 Great East Japan tsunami in
Miyagi prefecture, Coastal Engineering Journal, 54(1) Special Anniversary Issue on the2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami, 1250008
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Abe, I. and Imamura, F. [2010] “The 3rd International Tsunami Field Symposium (ITFS),
Sanriku field trip guidebook,” 11 pp.
Coastal Engineering Committee (JSCE) [2011] “The 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami
information,” http://www.coastal.jp/tsunami2011/ (accessed 28 May 2011).
Ebina, Y. [2011] “Corrections of the 1611 earthquake and tsunami,” 1611 Keicho earthquake
tsunami 400 years symposium, Tohoku university.
http://www.dcrc.tohoku.ac.jp/surveys/20110311/event.html
Google Earth [2011] http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
Iwanuma city (2011), “Reconstruction plan home page”
http://www.city.iwanuma.miyagi.jp/kakuka/kurasi/seikatu/matidukuri/untitled112.html (inJapanese)Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) [2011] “The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku
earthquake,” http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/2011_Earthquake.html (accessed 12 June
2011)
Miyagi Prefecture [2011] “Earthquake damage information,”
http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/kikitaisaku/higasinihondaisinsai/higaizyoukyou.htm (accessed
1 December 2011)
Sawai, Y., Fujii, Y., Fujiwara, O., Kamataki, T., Komatsubara, J., Okamura, Y., Satake, K. andShishikura, M. [2008] “Marine incursions of the past 1500 years and evidence oftsunamis at Suijin-numa, a coastal lake facing the Japan Trench,” The Holocene, 18 (4),517–528.
Sendai city [2011] “Press release document,” http://www.city.sendai.jp/report/2011/ (InJapanese) (accessed 17 August 2011)
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications [2011], “Estimation of
numberof population
andhouseholdintsunamiinundated
area,”
http://www.stat.go.jp/info/shinsai/index.htm (in Japanese) (accessed 25 April 2011)
Sugawara, D. and Imamura, F. [2010] “The 3rd International Tsunami Field Symposium(ITFS), Sendai field trip guidebook,” 21 pp.
The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group [2011] “Nationwide Field Surveyof the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami,” Journal of Japan
Society of Civil Engineers, Series B, Vol. 67 (1) pp.63-66.
Tsuji, Y. [2011] “Generation of earthquake and tsunami of the 1611 Keicho event,” 1611
Keicho earthquake tsunami 400 years symposium, Tohoku university.
http://www.dcrc.tohoku.ac.jp/surveys/20110311/event.html
Tsunami Engineering Laboratory (TEL), Disaster Control Research Center (DCRC), Tohoku
University [2011] “Tsunami survey results,”
http://www.tsunami.civil.tohoku.ac.jp/hokusai3/E/index.html (accessed 8 April 2011)
US Geological Survey (USGS) [2011] “Magnitude 9.0 – Near the east coast of Honshu,
Japan,”
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/ (accessed 20
March 2011).
20